


Morituri Te Salutant

by PoliticallyObsessedScholar



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Hunger Games AU, One-Shot, gratuitous adaption of the source material
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-13
Updated: 2016-12-13
Packaged: 2018-09-08 08:02:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8836765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PoliticallyObsessedScholar/pseuds/PoliticallyObsessedScholar
Summary: The Hunger Games - 24 children enter, only one leaves alive and Harry Potter is determined that this time there will be a victor for District 12.





	

Waiting in the wings to go out on stage for his introduction to the Capitol, Harry thought for a moment about how sickening the entire thing was. Everyone knew that only one of them would return at the end of the Games: that twenty-three of the people they were cheering for and falling in love with were about to die viciously in an exercise of social engineering and entertainment. On stage little Ginny Weasleywas trying desperately to convince a room full of gamblers that while the oddswere distinctly  _not_ in her favour, she's going to survive long enough for them to bother about her ("Well you all remember my brother don't you? I picked up a few of my own tricks living with him!")

The Weasley family had been Harry's family for as long as he could remember. His father had died in a mine accident when he was a year old and his mother was killed by an overzealous peacekeeper when she went to find out what had happened. Since then he'd been the ward of his mother's sister, Petunia, and her husband Vernon and they'd shamelessly used him as both slave and whipping boy. He was always the last to get any of their meagre rations and whenever they needed more it was his name, and not their son's, that went into the reaping bowl in exchange. When they'd come to say goodbye to him they could barely contain their delight, in fact Uncle Vernon had extolled at length about the celebration they were throwing that night and the cake they'd bought from the bakery for the occasion of his death. Only Dudley looked vaguely discomforted by the whole thing but that could just as easily have been a stomach ache.

In contrast, the Weasley Burrow was a place full of love and joy. Even though they had seven children (well, six since Fred's unfortunate reaping) and the odds that were so firmly against them, they had welcomed Harry like one of their own. It wasfrom the Twins that he learnt how to make traps for game. It was Charlie's links to the Seam that had allowed him the warmth of a fur coat that one miserable winter he was forced to sleep outside. It was Bill's strong arms and Arthur's genial smile that had prevented it from happening again. It was from Percy's inexplicable decision to work on the Games after Fred's death that he learnt the meaning of betrayal (and from his desperate cry hearing Ginny get reaped -  _no, no, no, they promised me!_   - that he learnt the meaning of true loyalty). It was from Ron that he learnt what it meant to be a best friend - to laugh at nothing and leap with fists swinging in defence before hearing the charge. It was from Ron's girlfriend, Hermione, that he learnt, well how to learn, and what it meant to love someone else. It was in the Burrow that he'd learnt what it meant to be a family, to shore up against all external threats and protect your own. Harry was a Weasley before he was a Dursley, even before he was a Potter and at no point in his life was that more important than right now.

Onstage, Lee Jordan called up "Our final volunteer, from District 12... Harry Potter!" and Harry took a deep breath, tried not to remember how much he wanted to burn the Capitol to the ground and stepped on stage. To be fair, he allowed himself to think of it a little, it helped him look vicious and determined.

Lee was smiling and laughing and asking inane question after inane question and Harry's smile was a little sharper and a little harsher every time. Then, finally, he asked about family and Harry knew he hadn't asked this of Ginny.So he stifflysaid "well there's mum and dad, my brothers, and" he took a breath,allowed himself to looksoften slightly"my sister"

Like the trained bloodhound he was, Lee scented a point of interest:

"Tell me more about your sister, you sound very close"

"Oh we are, I would do anything for her. She's vicious, when she was ten she punched out two sixteen year old boys who worked in the mines for bullying her best friend. Still, I'm an older brother! You know what we're like"

There was a polite laugh from the audience and Lee continued with this train of conversation that had broken his taciturn mask:

"So when you say you'd kill for her, would you kill to return home to her?"

Trap Set. Bait Taken.

"Well, I'd kill to return her home"

Lee looked politely puzzled "I'm not sure I quite understand..."

"Well, you see, she came here with me"

Afterwards Ginny looked very nearly angry until he'd explained to her that he'd just made her more competitive. Thanks to that interview he'd talked up her skills and they were going to add his odds to hers. He had after all just publicly declared an alliance that would not break down. They were siblings who very clearly loved each other, there was no way they'd end up killing each other in a vicious sibling rivalry like three games previous. She was twelve years old and twelve year olds were usually canon fodder. 

They'd returned back to their quarters and the worn but kindly face of their mentor Remus Lupin was waiting for them. He shook his head, murmured that they'd be the death of him, said that "if that's the way you want to play it" he'd go along with it, and sent them to bed with Hot Chocolates.

Remus was the only victor from District 12 since the Games had begun. He'd been reaped at sixteen years old and his genteel manner with a propensity for rattling off facts had everyone fooled. He'd entered an alliance with Peter Pettigrew from District 10,Sirius Black from 4, and a twelve year old boy from 11 nicknamed Dobby. That year there had been a particularly vicious crop of careers, nicknamed the Death Eaters, headed by the sadistic Bellatrix Black they'd tortured the Longbottom siblings to insanity and skinned Marlene MacKinnon alive over a fire. Then in a "surprise" twist,Pettigrew betrayed his allies to the Death Eaters.They had fled but not before Bellatrix killed Dobby with a knife to the throat. 

Not long after Remus and Sirius tracked Pettigrew down. They'd tied him up and he'd begged ("S - Sirius... R- Remus... My allies... my old allies..." ) and Remus had stood under the artificial sky and started making absolution ("Forgive meFather, for I'm about to sin.") 

Black rolled his eyes and said: "Make it quick, Remus. I want to commit the murder I was put in here for."

In the meantime Pettigrew continued to beg, to pretend that it wasn't him who'd betrayed them to Bellatrix, but they weren't listening. A few moments later Remus had finished his prayer, he turned, said: 

“Ready, Sirius?” 

Sirius had already retrieved two large rocks, one for him and one for Lupin. They held them in their arms, looked down on the struggling Peter, and readied themselves.

“Together?”Sirius said quietly.

“I think so,” said Lupin“On the count of three. One — two — THREE!”

He’d won the games afterwards, after a dramatic three way confrontation. Bellatrix had killed Sirius by throwing a knife at him on the edge of a cliff (he’d ducked, overbalanced, and fell) and after she’d laughed so hard she’d done the same. He’d looked so very scholarly, so very sedate, so very moral - even as Victor, even as he sat watching himself bludgeon Pettigrew to death on a large screen in front of him.

As he crawled into bed, Ginny curling up for protection next to him, Harry thought that made him scariest of all. In the arena Remus Lupin could be the difference between their life and death but if he thought for one moment that they weren’t worth the risk, he’d let them die and wouldn’t lose an iota of sleep. No, in the arena, it would just be him and Ginny and he’d make sure she came out of it the Victor.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry, this was originally going to be multi-chapter but I'm going to leave it as a snap-shot and maybe return in the future with a brand-spanking new plot.


End file.
